The Perfect instructor.

[SailNaked]

OK stop bashing the newbies and the lack of standards, what do you do to be the perfect instructor? what do you make sure you emphasize to ensure you graduate safe competent divers that will not destroy the first reef they find? how? what do you keep in mind, and what about the difficult students? how do you handle them?

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

Striving to be a perfect instructor is an unattainable goal so it is frustrating as well as self defeating and self depreciating. Try to be the best you can be, do the best you can do, and continue to learn and perfect your craft(iness). None of us will do it all right, but if you know your weaknesses and your strengths you can produce new divers that are significantly above the curve.

 

[Walter]

In any discussion of value, everything will be opinion. There are no facts, only opinions.

There are no perfect instructors, but looking for ways to improve is a great idea. Striving to respond well to these questions is an excellent starting point.

 

[SubMariner]

There are no perfect instructors, but looking for ways to improve is a great idea. Striving to respond well to these questions is an excellent starting point.

With all due respect, Walter, several of these questions are very subjective/biased, reflecting what YOU consider to be "essential" to a "good dive Instructor".

Meanwhile, to keep on topic, I agree with halemano's post.

 

[tomfcrist]

There are no perfect instructors, but there are good and bad instructors.

Students should be given the proper tools to be competent divers, and should have decent bouyancy before getting a c card. They still wont have great bouyancy untill 25 or so dives.

As far as difficult students, its like this..........I start off by being soft, and kind.......but if the student obviously isnt going to put in the effort to become a diver, they get dropped from my course. If the student (or usually the young students parent) is just a jerk or is in anyway vulgar/obscene in the way they treat me or my other students, they are dropped and never welcomed back. Not all agencies grant the freedom to do this, but mine does.

 

[Walter]

With all due respect, Walter, several of these questions are very subjective/biased, reflecting what YOU consider to be "essential" to a "good dive Instructor".

All value statements are opinions. I'm well aware of that. It has recently come to my attention that other folks are not always aware of the concept that value statements are always opinions. For this reason, I'm trying to remember, not always successfully, to label my obvious opinions as opinions. I forgot in my previous post, but I've gone back and edited my post to reflect I freely admit I am expressing my opinion. I've posted my disclaimer (twice), are you also going to label your post as opinion?

 

[DCBC]

...what do you do to be the perfect instructor?

There is no such thing as the "perfect Instructor." Any comparison I can make can only be made in comparison with myself not others. Although I'm a better Instructor than I use to be, I'm still learning.

In the past 38 years of teaching, I have found that there are things I do that result in a safer Diver. As I believe it is the Instructor's job is to do this, my value as an Instructor can only be determined when the competence of the divers I produce are evaluated. That is the only yardstick. I won't certify a "work-in-progress."

1. I insure that the student has the necessary knowledge and in-water ability that will prepare him/her for open-water. To do this, I run a 50 hour training program. The goal is to create a diver who can dive in a buddy team, independent of supervision.

2. Training is not piece-meal and insures that the Student has the necessary rescue skills to be a productive member of the buddy team on the first open-water dive. For me to do less, is to not adequately prepare the Student.

3. I do not integrate Students into an organizational mentality. They don't chant Agency mantras, nor think any one Agency is the be all and end all of diving education. The focal point is on building personal diving knowledge and in-water competence.

4. All aspects required of basic diving are covered however stress is particularly given on the Buddy System, buoyancy control, air consumption / dive planning, CESA (50'), and rescue & emergency procedures. As the divers are trained to dive in teams without supervision, the aspects of dive site assessment, tide charts and current predictions are included.

5. I encourage new Divers to continue their diving education after they accumulate a minimum of 25 hours of diving. Mentors are available through the Dive Club I teach through and dives are held usually twice a week, 52 weeks of the year.

6. I do not solely teach basic and Advanced diver programs and also certify DMs and Instructors. This aids me by requiring a broader use of my knowledge base to remain current.

 

[SailNaked]

The title of the thread was to get opinions on how to be a better instructor. After all the agency taught you.

I would consider myself a "perfect" instructor if all of my students safely completed all of their first 25 dives and all of their buddies would be willing to dive with them again. If their buoyancy was not commented on by anyone watching them under their breath, if they never posted any questions that were not advanced skills on SB, and they loved to dive.
now if even one of my students crashes into a reef off the back of their first dive boat or needs to surface to clear their mask, I fail as an instructor and I expect to be someplace in the middle with your help.

So, some of you have had the learning curve thrown at you, you know how difficult it is to teach in the real world, teen agers, yuppies, bozos and Fat American photographer know it alls walk in your door, spit their regulators and bolt to the surface. so take a deep breath and tell us all about what brilliant stroke of genius you had to deal with the situations. Tell me a story.

 

[boulderjohn]

Although it may seem laudable to see how skilled the students who complete a course are as the sole mark of a great instructor, it is, in my view, a bit short sighted. You have to include how the students got there.

Let's compare two extremes.

All the students that pass Instructor A's course are highly skilled divers with whom anyone would be happy to dive. How did they get there? Well, to begin with, quite a few dropped out along the way because they felt like they were not going to get it, leaving only those who came to the program with pretty good natural affinity for diving. Even those remaining struggled mightily during the assessment of skills, having to repeat the same skills over and over again. This is because Instructor A sees himself primarily as an assessor of skill and just keeps requiring them to do it until they figure out how to do do it right. Demonstrations are brief and skill sequencing is poor.

Instructor B sees herself, in contrast, as an instructor first and an assessor second. Her demonstrations are careful and clear. She is able to perceive the causes of student problems and take immediate steps to correct them. She sequences skill instructional activities carefully so that students take carefully measured steps toward mastery. As a consequence, few of her students drop out of instruction, and most complete the course in far less time than Instructor A's students.​

A great instructor to me is one who can take a struggling student and use instructional skill to reach a high standard.

I have seen with my own eyes instructors who forget they are instructors and see themselves as assessors only. I have seen instruction with minimal demonstration and practice. I have seen instruction that does little more than name the skill and then tell the student whether or not the student was successful when assessed. That instructor will eventually turn out skilled divers, but that does not make him a good instructor.

 

[DCBC]

A great instructor to me is one who can take a struggling student and use instructional skill to reach a high standard.

I have seen with my own eyes instructors who forget they are instructors and see themselves as assessors only. I have seen instruction with minimal demonstration and practice. I have seen instruction that does little more than name the skill and then tell the student whether or not the student was successful when assessed. That instructor will eventually turn out skilled divers, but that does not make him a good instructor.

I agree that the key skill of an Instructor is to "instruct," hence the name Instructor. Assessment is only a small part of the skill-set. All too often however, assessment is something that is not adequately addressed. At least this is the only explanation I can come up with when I see incompetent divers certified...